Item #63840 Great First Cause, or the Self-Moving Forces of the Universe. Orson Pratt.

Great First Cause, or the Self-Moving Forces of the Universe.

Liverpool: R. James, Printer, 39, South Castle Street. 1851. First edition. 16pp.Octavo [21.5cm]; disbound pamphlet. Bit of age toning, small chip at the top right hand corner of the front wrap. Very good. Item #63840

A tract in which Orson Pratt discusses various interest spiritual and metaphysical concepts and theories. According to Crawley, the work "was not well received by Brigham Young. Nine years after it appeared, the First Presidency published a letter in the Deseret New of July 25, 1860, which specifically identified the first two sentences of part 17 [...] as objectionable [...]."

The "objectionable" sentences from Part 17 of Pratt's Great First Cause state, "17. All the organizations of worlds, of minerals, of vegetables, of animals, of men, of angels, of spirits, and of the spiritual personages of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, must, if organized at all, have been the result of the self combinations and unions of the pre-existent, intelligent, powerful, and eternal particles of substance. These eternal Forces and Powers are the Great First Causes of all things and events that have had a beginning."

In 1865, LDS Church authorities "Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, and all of the Twelve [Apostles] except Orson Pratt published a letter condeming Great First Cause [and other of Pratt's works, stating] "Where these objectionable works, [...] or parts of works, are bound in volumes, they should be cut out and destroyed." But from the surviving copies of O. Pratt's Works, it would seem that this injuction was seldom followed. Indeed, in the mid-1870s the Deseret News was till advertising O. Pratt's Works for sale (Crawley)." Present with us here still today, is an original copy of the pamphlet in very good condition, cut out out from a volume, but undestroyed by the overly-pious. Crawley 543. Flake/Draper 6493. Sabin 64954.

Price: $50.00

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